The contract will see O’Brien process commingled materials at its materials recycling facility (MRF) in Hartlepool.
The arrangement, which was initially tendered for five years is valued at £1.6 million.
The contract had been due to include the other Tees Valley councils of Hartlepool, Redcar and Cleveland and Stockton on Tees. However, the three authorities opted not to join the contract at the time of the tender and so it was awarded on behalf of Middlesbrough council only.
Contract
In September 2015, Middlesbrough moved to bring its kerbside collection contract in-house citing a ‘major collapse’ in the market value of recycled materials. It terminated a two-year contract extension with Biffa (see letsrecycle.com story).
Previously, recyclables had been sorted by J&B Recycling.
A spokesman for Middlesbrough council said: “Middlesbrough council has undertaken a procurement exercise to source a contractor to sort fully commingled recycling collected at the kerbside by the council’s crews.
“Following this procurement exercise O’Brien Waste Recycling Solutions have been awarded a three-year contract to deal with all the kerbside recycling material collected by Middlesbrough council.
“We look looking forward to working with O’Briens to ensure the recycling material collected and sorted is of the highest possible quality and encourage as many people as possible to participate in the kerbside recycling service.”
Commingling
The local authority switched from a kerbside-sort to a commingled recycling collection system, after having been awarded funding to do so as part of the government’s Weekly Collection Fund in 2013.
The move proved ‘extremely popular’ with residents with participation increasing from an estimated 35% to 80% and the household composting and recycling rate rising from 22% to almost 40%, the council has claimed.
O’Brien’s win comes off the back of a contract award for the processing of Durham’s recyclables, and plans to bring an additional 50 jobs to the Teesside area through a £6 million expansion of its existing Hartlepool MRF.
When contacted by letsrecycle.com, O’Brien Waste Recycling Solutions declined to comment on the Mddlesbrough contract.
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